Phuket Post
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Associate Editor Sails Away |
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My farewell letter to Phuket Post (as submitted): With the current issue of Phuket Post, Associate Editor Robert Pratt departs the newsmagazine after leading it for the past eight months during a period of transition. Mr Pratt leaves Phuket for his native California, where he will ship out at the end of November for a position playing jazz saxophone aboard the Cunard cruise liner the Queen Victoria. "I take away vivid memories of the unique people of Phuket," Mr Pratt said. "Many impressions of the warmth, spirit and traditions of the Thai people will stay with me: bringing early morning alms to monks at Wat Kun Chee, honouring Princess Ubol Ratana during the grand opening of Patong's Millennium Resort, paying respect to Chinese gods during the Vegetarian Festival, and many more memories. The friends I have made in Phuket will have a place in my heart wherever I plant my feet." Mr Pratt cited working with a knowledgeable and lively editorial and production staff as his proudest achievement at Phuket Post. He also helped to present a story by contributing writer Eric Haeg that scooped all other local media on the incursion of dangerous box jellyfish into waters surrounding Phuket. Additionally, he led the production staff in a redesign of the look and feel of the Phuket Post that achieved a more contemporary presentation, and he implemented an automated production system. After travelling around the world aboard the Queen Victoria (stopping one day in Phuket during his voyage), Mr Pratt promises a return to the Pearl of the Andaman for further endeavours in journalism and music. Until then, he leaves Phuket Post in the capable hands of the reporting and production staff, who will train newly appointed Managing Editor Phil Teese and Assistant Editor Fraser Morton to rigorous standards. Mr Teese comes to Phuket after a career in newspaper writing and editing in Australia. Mr Morton has resided in Phuket for the past three years, after graduating from university in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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An Early Goodbye to Phuket Post |
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 Despite my dissatisfaction with working at Phuket Post, I have loved working with all of the people there. They have made it fun for me, and I’m glad to have had a chance to get to know them. I continue to be amazed by all the good work the native-Thai people do in producing an English-language newspaper. There’s no way I could do even 10 percent of what anyone in the office does if I tried to write, layout or sell ads for a Thai-language newsmagazine. Even though I still have about two weeks left before my final day, Senior Designer Khun Boo arranged a casual group photo shoot. And she comped up the photo into a nice going-away postcard for me. Made me cry for thinking about leaving everyone. Duk and I plan to return to Phuket, however. So maybe we’ll have a chance to visit with many of our Phuket Post friends next year. |
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Phuket Post No. 89: 19 September-2 October 2008 |
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  At this point, I think that me and Khun Boo, the senior production artist, have worked out a good routine for developing and executing cover concepts. The formula is to have some large central element coming into the frame from the lower left. Then the main headline at the top, and subhead and teaser text running down the right side. It's a rather common way of approaching magazine covers, but to my mind, the Phuket Post's covers have never been better. Our cover story looked at the famed Phuket Vegetarian Festival in three parts: a profile of one of the maa song, or "enchanted horses" who perform superhuman feats during the festival. Khun Tucky turned in sidebars detailing the schedule of events and some notes about traditions involved in the festival. Also in this issue, Khun Jang turned in an extensive examination of the efforts of local leaders to promote tourism in Phuket in the aftermath of anti-government protests that closed the airport. In all, I felt that it was a successful issue, with a good mix of content. Download PDF of Phuket Post #89 Download PDF of Property Plus #89 |
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Phuket Post No. 88: 22 August-5 September 2008 |
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  The big breakthrough on this issue isn't visible inside. Instead, it can be seen in the smile on my face. Only a week short of six months to the day I started working with the newsmagazine, we finally got the production cycle worked out. We met our print deadline without overtime, having planned and executed the issue methodically. And that means that I didn't have to work insane hours, sacrificing my weekends. Of course, events crashed in on us, and we had to scramble to follow a breaking news story about protesters closing Phuket International Airport. Khun Jang and Khun Matt spent most of the weekend before our printer deadline at the airport watching the protests and talking to airport officials and local leaders about the costs of the airport closure and the ongoing negotiations with protesters. We managed to get in a brief but newsy recap. Also in this issue, we extended colorful summary boxes, which until now had only appeared on dining reviews, to almost every feature except news. Tha was one thing that I early on thought Phuket Post should do. Since the newsmagazine is printed on good paper in full-color, I think the overall look-and-feel is improved by smart use of color instead of relying on standard newspaper black-and-white. Download PDF of Phuket Post #88 Download PDF of Property Plus #88 |
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Phuket Post No. 87: 22 August-5 September 2008 |
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  I had initially worked up another idea for the cover of this issue. But when Fraser Morton's piece on the Phuket Stunt Show came in, I thought it would make a dramatic cover. Thanks to photo contributor Gina Smith for a great image and senior designer Khun Boo for a good concept for the banner headline. I had to work the phone to arrange for a good property feature for the cover of the Propety Plus supplement when a planned story fell through. Junior designer Aorn came up with a good-looking cover design for Property Plus in an astonishingly short time. The staff had typically worked late into the night to get to the printer on time, but I decided that it wasn't fair to penalize everyone for my lack of organization. (The tradition of working late on deadline day had been handed down to me, and it was something that I never cared for. Fed up with working late and frustrated that I had been unable to get help from management to fix production cycle problems, I sent everyone home at the typical close of business, at 6pm. We sent the issue to the printer the next day, late for the second time in a row Download PDF of Phuket Post #87 Download PDF of Property Plus #87 |
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